maps

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on Wednesday launched a new interactive web map that displays applications and permits for work on individual, interior and scenic landmarks, as well as buildings in historic districts. Permit Application Finder users can search by community district and work type, allowing the public to see geographically where LPC has issued permits for the first time.

“LPC reviews and approves thousands of permit applications for work on designated properties each year, and with this map, information on all of these projects is just a click away,” LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said in a statement. “It is an excellent example of how we are leveraging technology to make our regulatory process more efficient and transparent.”

What could go better together than feminism and food delivery? Thanks to Grubhub, the online takeout service, hungry New Yorkers can now easily order from women-run restaurants. The company on Tuesday launched an app called RestaurantHER that aims to empower and promote women chefs and owners, who are often underrepresented and underpaid in the restaurant industry. Available nationwide, the app includes a map that looks similar to Grubhub’s typical page, but only highlights restaurants owned or co-owned by a woman or a kitchen led by a woman executive chef.

From Broadway to Bowery, 1980s New York City was a very different place compared to today’s manicured metropolis. Courtesy of Maps Mania, the 80s.NYC street map picks up where the Finance Department of New York City left off. In the mid ‘80s the bureau photographed every single building in the five boroughs in order to accurately assess building taxes and estimate property taxes. Brandon Liu and Jeremy Lechtzin have finessed this trove of photographic information into a nifty map that allows users to travel the city’s streets in the bad old 1980s with a map-based street view for an easy-to-browse glimpse of the streetscape 30 years ago. You can browse by location by clicking anywhere on the map for vintage street views on that spot, or type in an address. For more context there are curated “stories” that provide historical background where it’s available (and interesting).

The temperature is falling, the air is brisk, and the kids are heading back to school. This can only mean one thing: Autumn is upon us. While you may lament the end of days spent sunning beachside, don’t forget that sweater weather brings with it a bounty of fiery colors. If you’re hoping to catch the changing season in all its beauty, there’s no better tool to plan your leaf peeping expedition than SmokeyMountains.com‘s Fall Foliage Map. This handy interactive cartograph will tell you when and where foliage is expected to appear, and more importantly, when it will peak in your area.

Tall buildings—from supertalls to garden-variety skyscrapers—seem to grow like weeds in New York City: A recent boom in tall Midtown residential towers has ushered in a new focus on life in the clouds. And we’re always comparing ourselves to other vertical cities. We also know there have been growth cycles and slower periods when it comes to the city’s skyscrapers. Now we can survey the landscape of Manhattan’s tallest buildings all at once thanks to the mapping wizards at Esri (via Maps Mania). The Manhattan Skyscraper Explorer reveals each of the city’s tall towers, showing its height, when it was built, what it’s used for and more.

The NYC subway map tidily lays out over 665 miles of track and 472 stations into a simple, easy-to-read design. While the map gives the impression that our fair city’s transit system is orderly and evenly spaced, as any true straphanger will tell you, that’s not the reality. Indeed, those colorful lines and nodes have been placed for maximum legibility, simply showing geographicalapproximations that often don’t even kind of match up with real life (as this man will tell you). Now, one redditor brings us an entrancing new animation that removes the MTA’s distortion, giving us a look at the real distance that exists between stations and lines.

6sqft previously reported on the “time machine” map function that allowed users to navigate overlaid maps from 1600 to the present to see what used to occupy our favorite present-day places. Now, the New York Public Library has released the Space/Time Directory, a “digital time-travel service” that puts the library’s map collection–including more than 8,000 maps and 40,000 geo-referenced photos–to work along with geospatial tools to allow users to see the city’s development happen over more than a century, all in one convenient place. Hyperallergic reports that the project, supported by a grant from the Knight Foundation, plots 5,000 digitized street maps across the five boroughs, organized by decade from 1850 to 1950.

From parks and kids’ camps to food pantries, a new map–just launched in Beta mode–from the Department of City Planning lets you visually explore a database of over 35,000 records from 43 different city, state and federal agency data sources, according to DNAinfo. You can see how your community stacks up when it comes to schools, police precincts, waste dumps, free legal help, ADA facilities, resources for children and seniors and much more, and find resources when you need them. The intention of the NYC Facilities Explorer is to give community boards, council members and agencies an easy way to locate services quickly when they’re considering future projects in various parts of the city.

In the years since the 9/11 terror attacks, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 people have sought refuge in New York City. Around 8,066 refugees have entered the United States through the city according to U.S. State Department Refugee Processing Center data. This week, President Donald Trump called for restrictions on entry to the U.S. for refugees and immigrants from the predominantly Muslim nations of Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Syria. A map of the world’s nations, courtesy of DNAinfo, shows the 59 countries from which New York City’s refugees have come each year since 2002.

Residents of today’s cities and neighborhoods are acutely aware of the cultural histories and social nuances that shape them almost as much as their streets and bridges, architecture and businesses. A few years ago Trent Gillaspie’s “judgmental maps,” from his site by the same name, hit a nerve and went viral; the totally unserious (but not necessarily inaccurate) maps pair geography with a snapshot of real life in modern cities, towns and neighborhoods. Gillaspie’s “Judgmental New York City” was spot on in many ways with its Manhattan of “amply rich people,” “super rich people,” “aging punks” and the “worst train station ever” and a Brooklyn that went from Jay-Z to Zombies. Now, Gillaspie is releasing a book (h/t Untapped) of his signature reality-check maps, including an updated New York City map and the city’s neighborhoods, decoded.